Fussey and Baer

20 High Street, Hitchin, SG5 1AT
Fussey and Baer sounds like a Danish television maker. Y’know, like the one that uses Dutch electronics but puts it all inside an elegantly crafted, oak wood cabinet. But inside it’s a coffee shop (not inside the hypothetical cabinet, inside the place labelled ‘Fussey and Baer’), an honest to god coffee shop selling honest to god, proper coffee. I’m still a little squeamish when it comes to sitting inside but it feels great to actually be in a decent coffee shop again, discovering somewhere new but going through the familiar motions to order an old favourite.
Once past the rigamarole of ordering with a mask on (I’ve been told I mumble at the best of times) and succumbing to a slice of cake, I can sit at one of the few tables left and take in the surroundings of a hip little coffee shop that is as much stylised as it is basic. A wooden countertop with espresso machine is all that there is between you and your server, with a few metal shelving units holding plantlife and bags of beans and really, this is all a good coffee shop should need. 
They serve up SquareMile Coffee, it is in the Italian tradition of incredibly strong coffee that means you should only need one for the day (although that won’t necessarily stop me returning for more). If done properly, the blend I’ve gone with should have an almost salty, umami flavour to it and this is exactly what comes to you in wave upon wave with each sip and is perfectly coupled with something sweet to get the juxtaposition on the tongue. It can be hard to find really good third wave coffee shops outside of the big cities and yet Hitchin has a few smattered here and there, yet this feels like the most ‘proper’ of them all, more closely associated of what you might think of when expecting a coffee shop. It’s small size may well play to its advantage, with a homely feel that lends to a need to be coddled sometimes, especially when there’s a global pandemic going on and you don’t particularly want to be sitting in and around masses of people. God, I haven’t enjoyed having a cup of coffee this much in months and the last place I expected to find it was in the far reaches of near-rural Hertfordshire.